Bond miniseries a license to thrill

Updated 11:37 pm, Saturday, January 25, 2014

Ian Fleming (Dominic Cooper) drew on his own sexy adventures when creating the iconic James Bond in fiction.

Ian Fleming (Dominic Cooper) drew on his own sexy adventures when creating the iconic James Bond in fiction.

Photo: BBC America

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Dominic Cooper as Ian Fleming in BBC America's 'The Man Who Would Be Bond.'

Dominic Cooper as Ian Fleming in BBC America's 'The Man Who Would Be Bond.'

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Dominic Cooper's electrifying as 007 creator Ian Fleming.

Dominic Cooper's electrifying as 007 creator Ian Fleming.

Photo: Liam Daniel, .

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Dominic Cooper portrays Ian Fleming and Lara Pulver is the baroness who arouses his wildest passions and helps shape his life in a captivating new miniseries about the James Bond writer. Photo Credit: BBC America. less

Dominic Cooper portrays Ian Fleming and Lara Pulver is the baroness who arouses his wildest passions and helps shape his life in a captivating new miniseries about the James Bond writer. Photo Credit: BBC ... more

Photo: .

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Ian Fleming's own exploits during the war served as inspiration for the iconic James Bond; here, Sean Connery plays him in 'Goldfinger.'

Ian Fleming's own exploits during the war served as inspiration for the iconic James Bond; here, Sean Connery plays him in 'Goldfinger.'

It was the earliest big screen experience I can remember: the handsome spy who spoke so cleverly and who always got the girl; the blonde killed in a way I had never heard of before — covered in gold paint so her skin couldn't breathe; Oddjob's lethal hat; and that frightening laser table that nearly split our hero in two.

I didn't get all the jokes, such as why everyone laughed when James Bond met Pussy Galore. But, hey, I was 9 in a more sheltered time.

Nevertheless, it was an exquisite childhood memory, one that helped form my love of movies and hooked me on the man known as 007 for nearly five decades afterward.

Now, a TV miniseries tells the story of the writer who gave us Bond: Ian Fleming. Expecting a conventional biopic, I was happily surprised to be treated to a drama filled with the sort of daring deeds, snappy dialogue and seductive goings-on that mark the beloved films.

The four-part “Fleming: The Man Who Would Be Bond” debuts at 9 p.m. Wednesday and continues at the same day and time through Feb. 19 on BBC America. It stars Dominic Cooper, whom I wasn't much acquainted with before this mini. He played the handsome fiancé of Amanda Seyfried's daughter character in “Mamma Mia!” as well as Howard Stark (Iron Man Tony's father) in “Captain America.”

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Cooper's multifaceted turn as Fleming — a young naval intelligence officer during World War II, whose espionage operations and passionate affairs served as inspiration for what became fiction's most famous spy — is the actor's real coming-out role. He's nothing short of electrifying.

To prepare, Cooper said he read a couple of Fleming biographies, but to flesh out the character's more intriguing and controversial sides, he reached deep within his own psyche.

In an interview following a BBC America press session, Cooper said Fleming, though a young man of wealth and privilege, was “emotionally damaged.” As we see in the series, he grew up in the shadow of his war-hero father and accomplished older brother. His personal exploits with women and indulgence in other pleasures consistently earned the disapproval of his mother, who treated him as if he were never quite good enough.

As a result, Cooper said, Fleming's treatment of women was a mix of passion and cruelty, as was eventually reflected in his creation of Bond.

Much attention in the TV mini, for instance, is paid to Fleming's rough sexual encounters with the married woman whom he was tempestuously involved with for years, a beautiful baroness named Ann O'Neill (Lara Pulver, “Sherlock”), whom he eventually wed in 1952.

“The missing hero father, the brother who had great success, the mother he could never win the heart of,” Cooper said, led up to this “famously violent relationship.”

“Fleming's” director, Mat Whitecross, and executive producer, Douglas Rae, admittedly took liberties with the details of Fleming's life to produce a smashing piece of television — the license to thrill, if you will.

“This isn't a documentary,” Whitecross said at a BBC America press session. “It's not a straight retelling of his life.”

“The ambition was to create a series that was as good as a Bond film,” Rae said. “Not quite the $150 million budget, but something that really told the story behind Ian. ... He was such an enigmatic, chameleon kind of character. But for me, the fascination was doing a film about the man who desperately wanted to be somebody else, his alter ego, this heroic kind of all-action hero.”

He certainly succeeded. It's an exciting, provocative and very sexy cinematic feast. Moreover, it serves up winks galore to Bond devotees. We get the clothes, the card-playing, the gadgets, the real-life inspiration for Moneypenny (engagingly played by Anna Chancellor) and, best of all, the words, which, toward the end, include a moving reference to “the spy who loved me.”